Apple Watch 2 rumors are just starting to heat up, but companies don't plan products in a vacuum: whatever the Apple Watch 2 will be when it's released, Apple has been planning the second-generation smartwatch over the last few years -- and the same can be said for the Apple Watch 3 in 2017 and the Apple Watch 4 in 2018. From what we've told you, Apple is considering leaving OLED displays and going with micro-LED displays in future Apple Watch models, thanks to DigiTimes (whom we doubted in an earlier post this week). The publication hasn't always been spot-on with leaks and rumors, often releasing leaks on things that make us raise our proverbial eyebrows in sheer disbelief.

A new Apple Watch patent has been uncovered by source AppleInsider, does give credence to DigiTimes' claim from earlier this week. The new Apple Watch patent, titled "Micro device with stabilization post," shows how micro-LED display manufacturing would work. The patent refers to Apple's LuxVue acquisition from 2014, an acquisition that now seems to have been deliberate and calculated rather than willy-nilly (we'd expect no less of the fruit company). The benefit behind micro-LED panels for the Apple Watch 3 and Apple Watch 4 (and future models beyond these) is that these would allow Apple Watch displays to have the brightness of AMOLED displays or OLED displays on smartwatches while cutting down battery consumption. You get brightness and conserved battery life with micro-LED panels, which would fix the battery life issues that the current Apple Watch has.

We still haven't heard anything from Apple, but I have a feeling that this patent trail is just the beginning for the company that doesn't file patents without a reason (even if we never know exactly what that reason is).